The Trouble with Love Potions
by FemaleSpock
Summary: It all started when the Snow Kids all ended up accidentally drinking a love potion from the Shadows Planet...Multiple pairings, set between S2 and S3.
1. Prologue

The Trouble with Love Potions

Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

It had started as part of a joke- well no, not quite- it had started as a result of a rash bout of wishful thinking on his part. It just seemed so easy, like such a neat and happy solution to all his romantic woes; he'd never intended for it to turn out like _this._

He hadn't really been intending to use it at all- even he (who was slightly prone to doing things without thinking them through) knew that it was highly unethical to do such a thing- he also knew that he couldn't leave the shop without buying it.

They'd only been on the Shadows Archipelago for a 'friendly' match (you didn't tend to go there for voluntarily- it was hardly holiday destination material) but there'd been some issue with the ship (he didn't know exactly what, he never paid attention to these things) and they'd had to stay there for an extra day whilst it was being fixed.

So they'd gone wandering and somehow he and D'jok had stumbled across a strange pokey little shop that they had to dare each other to enter- because, quite honestly, it looked dark and musty and not altogether wholesome.

It had been there he'd stumbled across it- the love potion- the thing that started all of the trouble that was to follow. He'd picked it up as soon as he saw the label on the shelf, he'd been thinking about Yuki all too much recently and, however momentarily, he'd wanted a quick fix- something to ensure that he wouldn't end up getting rejected again. But it was ridiculous of course, who had ever heard of such a thing as a real life love potion, it was surely just a rip off and, knowing the Shadows, probably poisonous to humans.

But the bottle was still in hand.

"What have you got there?" D'jok asked, bounding over.

"A love potion," he said, injecting a snigger into his voice.

D'jok laughed. "You aren't seriously thinking about getting that are you?"

"No, of course not- I just thought it'd be funny." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"I suppose we could see if it actually works- we could test it on Clamp," D'jok joked.

Micro-ice checked the price tag- it was actually relatively cheap- yet more evidence that it couldn't be the genuine article. Figuring he didn't have much to lose, he went ahead and bought the damn thing- chucking it in the inner zipped pocket of his suitcase so that he wouldn't have to explain it to his teammates (especially not Yuki).

And somehow he'd just forgotten about it- he'd unpacked the rest of the contents of his case, when they'd finally gotten back to Akillian, and then put it underneath his bed- out of sight and out of mind.

It was months later when it finally re-emerged from under there- and it was in the most accidental way possible.

It still baffled him that such a small mistake could have caused so much pain. His mistake had been buying it in the first place- but it was Rocket's fault that anyone had actually ended up taking it.

They'd decided to have a party- a small gathering of close friends (but definitely not family members) and it had gotten slightly out of hand (even Sinedd had ended up showing up for some strange reason- although he was promptly thrown out) and they'd slightly underestimated the demand for booze.

And then Rocket had asked- innocently enough where everyone's personal stashes were (not all of them had one- but he did) and he had told him that it was kept under the bed- not thinking for a moment that there was anything else under there that Rocket might conceivably mistake for alcohol.

And it had ended up getting mixed up with the punch- he hadn't known that at the time, otherwise there could have been a chance to stop what was about to happen, he was left to discover it afterwards- the empty bottle that explained why everyone was suddenly acting so strangely. He didn't know when it had been added either (the thought that there were a bunch of strangers who were wandering round affected had crossed his mind more times than he would have liked to admit).

Later that night, when everyone else had gone, they'd all sat down in a circle (with the perfectly innocent looking bowl of punch just sitting there in the middle) playing truth or dare- but mostly just drinking.

And then they'd fallen asleep…little knowing that in the morning everything would be different.

**Okay, so I had the idea for this fic for a while (as in, before the start of Season 3) and I didn't really want to write it at that moment just because I couldn't really face writing a multi-chaptered fic at that time…then Season 3 happened and the fic kind of changed in my head because of the stuff that was happening in that and so now I'm finally getting around to starting on it (because this fandom needs to be way more active than it is right now). And yeah, I know the love potion plot is kind of clichéd but hopefully it should be fun and it's not something that we've really had in this fandom anyways. Also, the next chapter should be more interesting because this was just a prologue to kind of get the set up going. So, review please!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Trouble Begins

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 1: The Trouble Begins

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

"Kids! What are you doing here?"

A rather alarmed sounding voice woke Micro-ice up almost instantly, he wiped the sleep from his bleary eyes, trying to find his bearings- his brain not quite noting the sight of everyone around him in a similar state of dazed confusion (even after being confronted with Tia's face a very short distance from his own).

Where was he?

He stared at the floor- suddenly realising that that was where he was (rather than the usual warm comfort of his bed)- and suddenly it all came flooding back; the party, the drinking, everything.

Surely he hadn't been so drunk as to pass out in the middle of the floor?

He clasped his head, raking his fingers through his hair, unperturbed by the fact that he had not even the slightest hint of a headache; everything felt slightly foggy but nothing _hurt._

"If Aarch catches you, he'll be a lot less lenient that than I am," the voice (that he suddenly realised belonged to Clamp) said, sounding increasingly impatient. "You kids go back to your rooms- I'll clean up this mess."

He hauled himself up, too eager to get out of there to notice anything strange- he would often wonder retrospectively whether there were really obvious signs that he had just missed- the meeting of eyes, gazes that lasted just a little too long.

But they'd mumbled their apologies, dispersing and going back to their own rooms- all except for Thran, he'd stayed behind, in a strange fit of altruism, to assist Clamp with the mess that they had all left behind.

He sloped back to his room, flopped back on his bed, and somehow fell asleep yet again. He awoke to the sound of D'jok tapping furiously on his holo-phone keyboard, swearing under his breath as he backspaced his words into oblivion, eventually giving up and chucking the phone onto his bed.

"What's going on? Who _aren't_ you texting?" he asked, cracking a grin.

D'jok frowned in response. "Doesn't matter."

After knowing D'jok for so long, Micro-ice tended to know when he was not being entirely truthful, it always came through in the slightly curt tone in his voice- as if he were annoyed rather than upset.

"Then why can't you tell me?"

"I just don't want to talk about it," D'jok said, stomping out of the room, snatching up the phone as he did.

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the…floor…this morning," Micro-ice commented to himself, even getting a little giggle out of it.

He figured whatever D'jok was going through was just one of his usual moody phases, he'd get over it like he always did; Micro-ice certainly wasn't going to let it interfere with his day off…but what to do?

He only really had to think about it for a millisecond- he should go and see Yuki of course (and put into effect plan #322 to win her over.). With a spring in his step (where would he be without optimism) he strolled over to Yuki's, knocking on the door with flair.

"Oh! Micro-ice, come in- there's actually something I really want to tell you!" She sounded breathless, her cheeks stained slightly pink, as she grabbed his hand and pulled him in.

He felt his heart leap as she spoke- could this really be it? Was she about to say to him what he thought she was about to say?

As he stumbled his way inside he came to see Mark, casually reclining in a chair, and he felt his face drop.

"What's he doing here?" The question came out sounding a little more accusatory than he intended- not that Yuki appeared to notice.

"I want you to be the first one to know that…"

"We're a couple now," Mark said, finished her sentence, the two of them smiling smugly at how utterly cute they seemed to think that was.

"What? How? When?"

"Just now, he came over and confessed his love- you've got to admire a man with initiative," she said, sweetly.

"Man?" Micro-ice practically choked on the word.

Mark puffed his chest up. "I just knew I had to make this little lady mine- you don't mind do you?"

"No, why would I?" he said, in a tone so sarcastic that even a five year old couldn't have missed the insincerity- but apparently Mark and Yuki were too 'in love' to notice.

"Great! I knew you'd understand!" Yuki said, giving him only the slightest fraction of her attention before turning back to Mark and planting a great big kiss on his lips, which he returned with vigour.

"I guess I'll just be going now," Micro-ice said, shuffling awkwardly, the two of them not even noticing as he left the room.

He honestly wasn't sure what to do- laugh or cry? It seemed like a strange dream, a nightmare in which the girl of his dreams was snatched away from him by someone he considered to be a friend- and then they'd been possessed with the spirits of strange gooey love birds who cared nothing for anything outside of each other.

It just seemed mad- and so sudden.

Walking down the corridor, feeling strange and unsure what to feel, he found that one of his teammates had definitely committed herself to the crying option.

He knocked on the door. "Tia? What's the matter?"

He figured he might as well distract himself from his own misery by comforting someone else- besides, his original plan for the day was pretty much ruined by that stupid Mark!

She slowly padded to the door, opening it to reveal herself in all her red-eyed wretchedness.

"What is it?" Micro-ice prompted, again- they weren't the closest two members of the team, but he still wanted to help her out.

"He's gone…Rocket's left again."

"But why? What's he gone and left for this time?"

It would almost have been funny but for Tia's sadness, for someone so supposedly dependable, he sure did run off a lot.

"He wouldn't tell me- he just packed his stuff and left. Everything was fine yesterday, I don't know what could have happened," she said, fresh tears starting to well in her eyes.

"Everything seems weird today," Micro-ice commented, making some sort a of connection in his mind- he couldn't say what it was, but something strange had happened last night, he was sure of it. "I don't know what's going on, but we'll get to the bottom of it."

**And that's it for this chapter! Next one should be soon hopefully. Please review, reviews are awesome!**


	3. Chapter 2: Discovery

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 2: Discovery

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

Mei stomped into the room. "Ugh, Tia, you would not believe what D'jok has just-"

She trailed off as she caught sight of the expressions on Tia's and Micro-ice's faces.

"What happened to you guys?"

"Rocket's left the team again."

"Yuki and Mark are dating," Micro-ice added.

"I'm so sorry, Tia, you must feel awful that this is happening again," Mei said, rushing over to comfort her, mentally putting aside her own boyfriend troubles.

"What were you saying about D'jok?" Micro-ice asked, suddenly, recalling his previous strange behaviour.

"Well, it's not that much of a big deal really- I just asked him whether he wanted to hang out sometime soon, you know, just the two of us, and he just kind of blew me off. But this isn't really relevant; we should be focusing on how to get Rocket back."

"Thanks," Tia said, weakly. "But I'm not sure what we can do, maybe this is just who he is."

"There must be a reason- did he say anything that might help?" Mei urged.

"Everything was fine last night but today…it's like something suddenly changed."

"What is with everyone today? They're all acting like they're on drugs," Mei complained, throwing her hands up in the air.

Micro-ice suddenly jumped up, a though striking him. "Stay here, I've just got to check something."

It was a long-shot a total long-shot but he just had to check. He ran back to his room, rummaging under the bed, scrambling and grasping desperately- coming up with nothing more substantial than stinky old socks.

Could it be? No, surely not…there was no such thing as a real love potion…and yet…

Despite his previous disbelief, a part of his mind clung on strongly to the idea- it beat thinking that Yuki liked Mark of her own free will. Although, it if was the case then they were in serious trouble, he had no idea how to reverse it or even what was in it. It wouldn't hurt to check though (there was still another part of him that was in deep denial about the potion even having been taken). Since he couldn't ask Rocket (because he had unceremoniously run away- to pursue some new love interest?) he would just have to settle for trying to sort through the rubbish- that is if it hadn't already been taken away.

He dashed off, hoping that Clamp and Thran hadn't quite managed to clear everything yet. But it appeared his hopes were in vain as the place where all the trouble had started was spick and span- and empty. Like nothing had ever happened there.

On a long shot, he went down to Thran's room, hoping that a) he'd be there and b) he'd remember whether he happened remember chucking the bottle with the love potion away.

He knocked on Thran's door, banging more and more loudly, but there was no answer.

"Ugh, where are you!" Micro-ice whined to himself, banging his fist on the door. Defeated, he then trudged back to face Mei and Tia, wondering whether he should tell them of his suspicions or not.

"Where have you been? You just left us in suspense!" Mei complained, when Micro-ice re-entered the room.

"I just needed to check something…" he admitted, vaguely.

"And…?"

"Don't freak out, but I think some of our fellow teammates may have taken a love potion…" He smiled sheepishly as he said it.

"What the hell?" Mei and Tia exclaimed simultaneously.

Micro-ice proceeded to explain the basics of the story, about how he had bought it- purely for a joke of course, and how it may have been the case that Rocket had taken it from under his bed.

"But how can it even be possible? There must be some other explanation," Tia said, shaking her head, looking exhausted from all the worry and pain.

"Suppose this is true," Mei pondered, "what would we be able to do about it?"

"I didn't even read the instructions and I have no idea where the bottle is, so erm…"

"I can't believe you would do something like this!"

"It's not my fault, I never meant for anyone to drink it." He held his hands up to his face to defensively.

"It's not real," Tia interjected. "Maybe it would explain the Yuki/Mark thing, but Rocket running away…that's not exactly a sign of love."

"What if he wasn't running away but running to someone?" Micro-ice suggested, causing Tia's face to crumple even more at the prospect.

"_Micro-ice!"_ Mei hissed, putting her arm around Tia's shoulders.

"I'm sorry!"

He had a terrible feeling that this wouldn't be the last apology he'd be making as they tried to clean up whatever mess had been caused.

"But we should at least try and see whether or not I might be right," he added, tentatively.

"Fine," Mei conceded. "We should split up and visit the other Snow Kids to see whether there are any other strange things going on. Tia, are you up to this?"

She nodded firmly, steel in her eyes. "Let's do this."

"I'll go see D'jok again," Mei volunteered immediately.

"I had trouble finding Thran earlier, so I'll take my luck with Ahito," Micro-ice offered.

"I guess that leaves me with Thran then," Tia said, shrugging.

They all got up to go find their various targets, unsure and nervous of what they might find.

Micro-ice was quick to find Ahito, given that he was slumped on the floor sleeping the hallway just inches away from Mei and Tia's door, his head resting on something (that Micro-ice couldn't quite see) that he was clinging onto for dear life even in his sleep.

Well this was going to interesting...

**That's it for this chapter; sorry it took a little longer than I originally anticipated. I'm really not happy with it, it still feels very boring and set-upy but I guess it had to be done. Please review anyway and let me know what you think. **


	4. Chapter 3: Plans

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 3: Plans

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

"Ahito! Ahito!" Micro-ice shouted, shaking the sleeping boy a little bit- he didn't have any time to mess around.

"Oh, huh?" Ahito mumbled, sleepily, raising his head, unintentionally revealing that he had been resting his head on a (now slightly squashed) bouquet of pink roses.

Well that wasn't a good sign.

"What are you doing out here?" Micro-ice asked, although he had a feeling that the answer would only confirm the suspicions that he already held. "And who are the flowers for."

"They're for the most beautiful, kind and wonderful girl in the Zaelion Galaxy," Ahito said, dreamily.

"Right…and that would be?"

Ahito shook his head at Micro-ice, as if it were a totally stupid question. "Mei, of course- she's my dream girl."

Micro-ice groaned as Ahito drifted back off to sleep- it was worse that he had thought- now there were _puns_ involved.

"Mei, you're my guardian angel…" Micro-ice heard him say in his sleep, as he was walking away- he felt fairly certain by now that Ahito was definitely under the influence of a love potion and frankly collecting more evidence would just have been creepy.

Meanwhile…

After a long search, Tia had managed to locate Thran- he'd holed himself up in some obscure room, apparently to get some peace and quiet whilst he worked on some new programme for the holo-trainer.

So far so normal (normal for Thran at least).

"Hi, Thran," she said, her voice startling him.

"Oh yes, hi," he said, already sounding immensely bored with the conversation. Well that could be a sign she guessed- but surely it wasn't possible to fall in love with one's mechanics work? She wasn't even sure she accepted the premise of a love potion anyways.

"So…you want to take a break?" she asked, tentatively.

"I can't, I have to finish this…there's so much I have to do…"

"Why? You selling that stuff?" she asked, half-jokingly.

"No."

It was at this point that Tia realised that it was extremely awkward trying to keep up a conversation with someone who refused to co-operate.

Giving it one last shot, she figured she might at well just come out and the question. "

"Hey, do you happen to suddenly be in love with someone today?"

"What?" he said, looking up from his work for the first time.

"Nothing, forget it," she said, making a hasty exit.

She tried to collect her thoughts as she walked along the very lonely corridors- he was certainly acting a little odd but whether it had anything to do with this so called love potion she had no clue. At least it had been a momentary diversion from thinking about Rocket. She sighed, thinking about him and, despite her better instincts; she pulled out her holo-phone and tried to call him.

He didn't take that call, leaving her just feeling worse than ever- he was ignoring her, she just knew it.

She really hoped this was just because of some love potion.

Meanwhile…

"D'jok, I wanted to talk about…" Mei said, entering his room, trailing off as she took in his physical appearance- he looked particularly ruffled, and there appeared to be fresh bruises appearing on his face. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing," he said, sullenly. "Just leave me alone."

"Were you in a fight? With who?" Mei said, coming over to take his hand.

He pushed her away, standing up dramatically. "I said, just leave it, Mei. God you're just like your mother- always meddling in other people's business."

She just stood there in stunned silence as he pushed past her, stomping out of the room without giving her a second look.

She stayed there for a while, waiting for him to come back, knowing that this was not her D'jok- that he wouldn't have said that to her when she was only trying to help him. When he knew that she had a few issues when it came to her mother.

She blinked back tears and tried to shake it off; she would get to the bottom of this no matter what it took.

They all met back at around the same time, converging back at Mei and Tia's room- Ahito having vacated the hallway space outside it, leaving, however, the bedraggled roses outside the door.

"What are these?" Mei asked, picking it up gingerly.

"I'll explain later," Micro-ice said, rolling his eyes- even he knew that this wasn't smooth on Ahito's behalf.

They quickly discussed their findings, collectively concluding that a) something strange was definitely afoot and b) since the love potion lead was the only one they had, they might as well follow up on that.

"Okay," Mei pondered. "If we're saying that it is a love potion then I guess the best thing to do would be to go back to where you bought it and see what the owner has to say."

"That might be a problem…I don't remember exactly where it was and anyways, it was on the Shadows' planet- it's not like we can just hop on over there."

"Do you think maybe there'll be any info online- they might sell them on holo-bay," Tia offered.

20 minutes searching disabused them of the notion that there might be anything useful on the internet- there was just too much bogus stuff to sort through.

"We could ask Artegor- he lived with the Shadows for years- maybe he encountered it in the past?" Mei said, just throwing out any old idea that might have a vague chance of working.

"No, absolutely not- that man is creepy," Micro-ice said, crossing his hands in front of his chest.

"Then I guess we'll have to speak to Aarch about it then- I mean he also lived there for a while," Tia said, smirking.

Micro-ice just pictured it- Aarch looking at him sternly as he related the whole sorry tale, how he would then proceed to lecture him about his irresponsibility in buying a love potion, he'd probably make him run extra laps or something…

He sighed, defeated. "Fine, let's go see Artegor."

'And just hope he knows something,' he added mentally.

**I have honestly no idea why it took so long for me to sit down and write this chapter- well, it was probably just laziness. Hopefully the next one won't take as long. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 4: Answers?

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 4: Answers?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

Artegor starred at them (not that they could tell behind the dark glasses) and said nothing. He'd been surprised when he'd been told that Micro-ice, Tia and Mei had come down to see him- and needed to speak to him urgently. They seemed like a strange grouping and he couldn't imagine what they had to tell him- had something happened to Aarch?

But that couldn't be it- it would have been in the news and they wouldn't have come here in person, they would have just called him- or perhaps they wouldn't have thought to tell him at all.

And he couldn't imagine that all three of them wanted to defect to the Shadows either- Rocket, he might have believed, but Micro-ice was probably the least likely candidate for the Shadows ever and the other two weren't much better.

It probably would have helped if they had just spit it out rather than standing there, anxiously, giving each other sideways looks as if to say: 'no, _you _explain'.

"Well?" he asked, finally, having had quite enough of the silent act.

Micro-ice rolled his eyes at the other two and decided for better or for worse, this was his mess, so he guessed that made his group spokesman.

"Well, here's the thing…a…erm…love potion from the Shadows Planet just happened to find its way into a bowl of punch and the Snow Kids just happened to drink some of it…and now there's chaos everywhere!"

"I see."

"You see but can you help?" Mei asked.

"We thought that you might know something, given your Shadow's expertise," Tia added, by way of explanation.

He just looked at them for a moment, considering what it was that he should say, memories of his own encounters with love potions flooding back to him in a rushing wave of emotion.

"So have you ever encountered a love potion?" Micro-ice asked, feeling desperate- whilst he was wasting time here, who knew what Mark was doing to poor Yuki?

Artegor sighed. "Yes…at one point it was quite a popular prank- to put a love potion in someone's drink and then watch them fall for someone completely inappropriate- the Shadows have a somewhat…cruel taste in jokes."

"So did they ever do that to you? What's the cure?" Micro-ice asked, eagerly.

His former teammates had in fact slipped him a love potion, back in the early days when they had just left Akillian, they'd thought it would be hilarious- watching someone as introverted as he was fall madly in love with which ever random person he happened to catch sight of.

It would have been bad enough if it had happened that was, humiliating even- but only a temporary embarrassment. They would have laughed about it for a while and then forgotten about it- he almost wished it had worked.

But it hadn't and everyone knew why.

He hadn't even wanted to believe it himself but it had confirmed all his worst suspicions.

He'd taken the love potion several times after that, always voluntarily- as a test- a check to see whether anything had changed.

He'd never needed the antidote.

But that didn't answer the kids' questions- he tried to think back to what his teammates had done to cure themselves when they had been effected- he'd never remembered anyone taking any sort of antidote but they just might not have told him- besides, Shadows' physiology worked differently to that of humans, it may have been that it just naturally wore off for them.

"I'm not even sure there is a cure," he said, avoiding answering the first question. "You'd be better off asking a doctor."

"Well…thanks for your time," Mei said, glumly, as they sloped off out of the room. As she came out of the door, she collided with Sinedd as he was walking in the opposite direction, her shoulder bashing into his chest hard.

"Oww," she said, automatically, rubbing the spot where the impact had occurred.

"Sorry," he said, quickly. "Are you alright?"

She looked up in shock- Sinedd restraining himself from making some sort of insult towards D'jok or the Snow Kids in general was weird enough on its own, but Sinedd sincerely apologising was just crazy.

He walked away before she even had the chance to respond but she didn't dwell on it any further- they had so much to do, especially given that Artegor had been spectacularly unhelpful and had left them pretty much back at square one.

Do you think Dame Simbai might know how to cure them?" Tia asked the others, later when they were back in the shuttle. "She's kind of like a doctor."

"I doubt it," Micro-ice said, resting his chin on his knees (which were hugged tight to his chest. "They've probably gotten married by now."

Mei rolled her eyes at him. "It's worth trying- we can't just give up."

"But we are running out of options," Tia admitted, sadly.

Not long after that, her holo-phone started buzzing, and even though she was in no mood to chat, she picked it up.

"Well, that was Keira on the phone," she told the others, after the call had finished. "She said that she had followed Rocket down to his cave but that he was refusing to come out or speak to anyone- she sounded so worried, she doesn't know what's wrong with him."

"At least you know where he is," Mei pointed out, trying to sound cheerful.

"I've got to go and see him- I'm sure I could convince him to come back," Tia said, determinedly.

"But what about going to see Simbai?" Micro-ice objected.

"I'll talk to Simbai," Mei offered. "Tia can go and see Rocket and you go and talk to D'jok and the others."

She wasn't going to try speaking to him again whilst he was acting like this- and surely as his best friend, Micro-ice might be able to snap some sense into him- or at least prevent him from getting into any more fights.

Micro-ice agreed, despite being far more investing in looking out for Yuki than D'jok, he much preferred it to having to explain to yet another person about how badly he had screwed up.

So with their tasks in place, they split up, each going their separate ways.

**So, this chapter initially was meant to have Artegor reveal a lot more to them about how the love potion worked etc. but then I realised that he probably wouldn't want to tell them everything about his past plus it made way more sense to keep a bit more mystery about the whole thing. So yeah, please review, I adore getting reviews!**


	6. Chapter 5: Let's Go

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 5: Let's Go

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

Tia held her head up high, straightening her back, attempting to be fully prepared for the confrontation which was about to ensue- if he had been affected by the love potion…well she was just going to have to grit her teeth and bear it until an antidote was found. She wasn't even going to entertain the possibility that it might be anything other than Micro-ice's biggest mistake to date causing this strange behaviour.

No, all she had to do was go in there and at least get Rocket to come back to the Academy. She mentally rehearsed what she'd say- that it was just chemicals affecting him, that he would be alright, that whatever he might be feeling was only temporary and it wasn't his fault- not this time.

She'd challenged him to Netherball and defeated him- dragging him away from his addiction, she'd pulled herself out of the haze of tears and saved him.

She done that and now she would do this too.

She'd gotten to the entrance to the cave so quickly, she'd barely even noticed how close she'd gotten, she'd been too wrapped up in her thoughts. She barely paused before entering the cave- there was no point waiting any longer, she might as well get this over with.

Even with all her preparation it still shocked her to see Rocket as he was now- his legs pulled close to his chest, his arms wrapped protectively around them, staring blankly at the wall. The cave looked slightly messy- several of his posters had fallen down and lay on the snow, unattended to, water seeping through them. She guessed he'd probably knocked them down with the football resting forlornly near the entrance- even that has been abandoned in whatever despair he might be feeling.

At least when he had been playing Netherball he had stood tall.

"Rocket," she said, simply, just to catch his attention- he looked so fragile to her now, she didn't want to frighten him (not something she had ever really had to worry about before).

He slowly looked up- having not expected to see her- so far, his parents had been his only visitors. He supposed he should have known that they'd tell her and that she'd come- no matter what he did, she always seemed to come back for him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I'm so sorry; I've let you down again."

"You haven't, it's not your fault it's just-"

"No, Tia, don't make excuses for me," he shook his head, dejectedly. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing that can be done- it can't be fixed this time."

"Stop apologising," she said, firmly. "It's not your fault- it's Micro-ice's fault actually."

"What?" the strangeness of that statement was enough to snap him out of his despondency. "Tia, I don't think you understand…"

"To cut a long story short, he bought a love potion and it ended up in the punch at the party the other day."

He looked afraid to hope, afraid to hope that he really had an out, that this really wasn't his fault for once- and the hope that these feeling might leave and things might go back to normal.

"Mei's gone to Dame Simbai to look for a cure," Tia added. "Come on home, it's not going to do you any good staying out here."

He stood up but he didn't move any further forward, his hands bunched into fists, a look of confusion replacing his previous expression.

"Don't you want to know?" he asked, his voice sounding somewhat strained.

She shot him a puzzled look.

"Don't you want to know who it is?" he clarified, looking down at his shoes.

She hesitated before she answered. "No, it doesn't matter."

He didn't look utterly convinced and she wasn't sure he was wrong to doubt. But the truth was, she didn't want to know- she didn't need the jealousy, the only way she could bear this was to keep it as intellectual and impersonal as possible. She didn't need to imagine Rocket fantasising about whoever it was that he'd unexpectedly fallen for, she didn't need to know who had pushed her out. She just needed to cure him and forget this had ever happened.

"Let's go," she said, holding out her hand. After a moment's deliberation, he took it, clasping it tightly, as if it were the only lifeline he had left.

They sat in silence in the shuttle, Rocket resting his head on Tia's shoulder, still clutching her hand- as if he couldn't bear to be parted from her. This was his only certainty, that even if he didn't deserve it, he could count on her for clarity- without her he was lost and confused, wandering only with the knowledge that he had to get away- to where, he'd never known.

She was his anchor; he couldn't help be afraid that he'd lose that now that even his feelings had managed to stray without his consent.

All his hopes were pinned on this antidote, that she would yet again come through, and that they could press reset and be Tia & Rocket again- the indestructible couple that could survive anything.

At least he was fairly certain that he wasn't going insane again- it wasn't like Netherball exactly, he was all to aware of what was happening to him this time, but that was the only point of reference that he had to try and understand what was happening to him- he could feel that anger and frustration just lurking beneath the surface, caged only by his feelings of uncertainty.

Netherball had made him feel powerful, godlike almost; this was just the opposite.

They stepped out into the snow, Rocket looking up at Aarch Academy with trepidation as they approached- there was still that part of him that desperately wanted to turn back, to run again. But he held onto to Tia and managed to summon the strength to go inside.

He'd only just gotten through the doors when he came face to face with the last person he wanted to see right then.

…**And that's it for this chapter. The lack of updates was due to exams, but since they're over now (yay), I'll start updating this fic far more frequently. Please review, reviews really do make my day!**


	7. Chapter 6: Explosions

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 6: Explosions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

"D'jok!" Tia exclaimed, stopping him before he left. "Did Micro-ice get a chance to speak to you?"

"He spoke to me," D'jok said, tersely, his features seeming as hard as stone in the dim light.

"I'm sure it'll all be sorted soon," Tia said, sympathetically. "Where are you off to anyway?"

"I'm going out."

She cocked her head to one side. "But where are you going?"

"Anywhere, as long as I'm away from here- I thought Micro-ice was my friend, but turns out I can't trust him after all- he's always been jealous of me, I should have remembered that!" D'jok burst out, gesturing wildly with his hands.

"Calm down," Tia said, casting a glance at Rocket as she said it, hoping that perhaps she might get a little help from him, but there was no help to be had- Rocket looked frozen in his spot. "What has Micro-ice done?"

"It's not what he's done! It's what he plans to do," D'jok frowned, crossing his arms defensively in front of his chest. "It's not the first time he's tried something like this."

"Hold on, I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding- he's not very good at explaining the whole love potion thing- but it really was an accident and it will all be fixed soon. I know it might be hard to see it but he really wasn't intentionally trying to cause harm."

"Don't tell me you believe that line! There is no love potion!" D'jok shouted. "I can't believe he's actually found people in the Galaxy gullible enough to actually swallow that story!"

Tia just looked at him in silence, unsure as to what to say in response to this- she was rapidly losing her patience with this entire situation- honestly, she had half a mind to kill Micro-ice herself.

D'jok shook his head in a mixture of disgust and disbelief, starting to walk briskly away before being stopped by the lightning-fast movement of Rocket grabbing firmly onto the other boy's wrist.

"Get off!" D'jok practically screamed.

Rocket just stared at his hand of D'jok's wrist, looking almost surprised at its placement- as if it had moved against his own will. D'jok struggled to pull it away in the absence of any action, stumbling backwards as Rocket's grip turned limp.

Rocket rushed forward to catch him.

D'jok brushed the helping hands away, his face twisting into a sneer. "What's wrong with you?"

"I…" Rocket started, his voice seeming to break under the intense glare in D'jok's murky sea-coloured eyes. "Stay."

"No way," D'jok said. "There is something really sick going on around here."

He turned to leave and Rocket did nothing to stop him this time. He just watched as he walked away and said nothing.

"I hope he doesn't get himself into any trouble," Tia mused. "When the antidote is found we're going to need to be able to locate him so that we can give it to him."

Rocket said nothing; he was still gazing off into the distance and an ever smaller looking D'jok.

"Rocket? Do you want to come inside now?" Tia offered, hoping to get something more than nothing from him.

He spun around very quickly, seeming to come to life again somehow. "I think I should go after him."

Tia frowned. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea- neither of you are exactly yourselves at the moment." Whilst she wasn't going to say out loud that she was afraid to let him out her sight (in case he ran away again or worse) but she was certainly thinking it.

"I'll be fine- you don't have to worry about me, Tia," Rocket said, plastering a false smile onto his face.

"But-"

"No, Tia, I can handle this- I promise!" he said, running off after D'jok before she could even have the chance to object again.

She considered going after him but her gut instinct told her not to- if going after D'jok on his own made him feel less hopeless then she wasn't going to stand in his way. Hoping for the best, she turned back and entered Aarch Academy.

She could tell something was wrong the moment she stepped through the door, something more wrong than what had already happened- there was an eerie quiet in the normally bustling corridors.

Her fears were pretty much confirmed when she found Micro-ice lying, knocked out, out the floor, several bruises on his face.

"Micro-ice!" Tia shouted, crouching next to him, trying to think what she should do. "Are you okay?"

"Ugh," Micro-ice replied, a few moments later. "Not so loud."

Tia breathed a sigh of relief- at least this was something that hadn't gone totally wrong today.

Micro-ice sat up slowly, wincing slightly, looking round in a disoriented fashion. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Tia admitted. "I just got here myself."

"D'jok hit me!" Micro-ice said, outraged. "He accused me of trying to steal his girl and he hit me!"

"I saw him earlier, he did seem…agitated…"

"Agitated is an understatement," Micro-ice said, shaking his head.

"Did he give you all those bruises?" Tia asked, concerned.

Micro-ice paused and looked away, somewhat guiltily. "Well no…I may have tried to talk some sense into Yuki and take her away from that pervert Mark…Mark didn't take too well to that…and come to think of it, neither did Yuki…"

"Ouch!" Tia winced in sympathy.

"So I see you didn't manage to find Rocket," Micro-ice said, suddenly noticing that Tia was alone.

"Actually I did- it's just that he decided to go after D'jok instead," she explained.

"Good luck to him with that!"

Before she could come up with a response, Tia's holo-phone began to buzz- it was Mei!

She just prayed that it was good news.

**That's if for this chapter; I hope you enjoyed it. I should probably say that everyone's behaviour is being affected by the love potion and it's really bringing the worst out in everyone- I've actually grown to really love D'jok's character and so I don't want it to seem like I'm characterising him like a jerk in this because I don't like him. Anyways, reviews are much appreciated!**


	8. Chapter 7: Pink and Purple for You

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 7: Pink and Purple for You 

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

**Warning: there's a little bit of medical talk in this chapter, so if you're very squeamish (like me) you might want to skip it.**

"Please tell me that she has good news, I'm not sure I can take much more of this," Micro-ice said, a somewhat manic tone in his voice.

"Hi Mei, what's going on?" Tia asked, calmly, ignoring Micro-ice's minor panic.

"Not much- I found Dame Simbai- she believes that she may be able to find an antidote."

"That's great!" Tia said, smiling.

"Don't get too excited yet- she hasn't even got a sample of the love potion to work with."

Tia turned to Micro-ice. "Are you sure you don't have any of the love potion left?"

"I told you, it wasn't even me who used the bottle!" Micro-ice said, raising his hands as if to protect his face.

"Do you think there's a way that we could get a hold of another bottle?" Mei asked.

"I guess we could go to the Shadows Planet and try and find the place I got it from," Micro-ice offered, tentatively.

"That might just turn out to be a wild goose chase," Tia said, shaking her head. "And it might be dangerous for us to leave Akillian whilst they are all under the influence."

"Dame Simbai said there is a solution- we just need a blood sample from someone affected," Mei said, grimacing at the thought. "So I guess you guys need to find someone and bring them up to the lab before she can even really get started."

"Can do," Tia said, determinedly. "I'll see you in a little bit."

"So, let's go get her!" Micro-ice said, hoping maybe Tia would just go along with his selection to go with them.

"Micro-ice, I know you want to help Yuki but I really don't think she is the best choice- it'll be too hard to pry her away from Mark. What we want is someone that will come willingly," she pondered, running through the list of names in her head. It couldn't be Rocket or D'jok- because who knew where they were; it couldn't be Yuki or Mark either- for the reasons stated. So by her calculation that left either Ahito or Thran.

"Who do you think will come more easily- Ahito or Thran?" she asked.

Micro-ice considered for a moment. "Ahito- he said he loved Mei so I guess if we tell him that she's at the lab, he'll be happy to come."

"Ahito it is then," Tia agreed, starting to power-walk down the hall in search of him.

The search for him turned out to be not all that difficult- he was, in fact, in his quarters- not that it was immediately obvious, given how radically different they now looked.

As soon as they stepped into the room they noticed the change: his room had gone from being decorated in a fairly minimalistic style, with a few posters here and there, to being swamped in decorations- mostly pictures of Mei that he had found in magazines. The whole thing looked disturbingly like a shrine. What's more, he had even changed the colour scheme- his duvet covers were now Mei's favourite shade of pink and even his standard blue pillows had been swapped for far 'prettier' lilac coloured ones.

"Well this is creepy…" Micro-ice said.

"I think Mei might actually be a little bit flattered if she saw this," Tia remarked, shrugging her shoulders.

Ahito himself was asleep at this point.

"I guess we better wake him up," Micro-ice said, feeling hesitant despite the fact that (being good friends for years) he'd woken him up plenty of times before. He thought it was probably the creepy vibe of the room that was making him slightly anxious- it meant it felt equivalent to waking up some violent stalker rather than the teammate they all knew and loved.

He tip-toed up to him and, cringing as he did it, tapped Ahito on the arm.

"Huh, what?" Ahito said, sleepily, causing Micro-ice to back away very quickly.

Tia rolled her eyes at Micro-ice's skittishness. "Mei told us to come get you- she's waiting for you at Dame Simbai's lab."

Ahito suddenly bolted up, almost giving Micro-ice a heart attack. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"We'll lead the way then," Tia said, heading out of the room.

After some time they reached Dame Simbai's lab.

"Mei!" Ahito shouted, starting to run towards her, falling asleep as he did- so that she had to catch him to stop him from falling over. Helplessly, she looked at the others as she struggled to hold his weight.

"Here," Dame Simbai said, taking hold of one of his arms. "Let's get him up on the chair."

With much effort, they managed to drag him onto the chair- he was far heavier than he looked.

"Listen," Dame Simbai said, shaking him awake again. "I'm just going to take a little sample."

Ahito nodded, barely even paying attention to her. "Mei, you're my guardian angel," he said, as the needle went in, just before he (somehow) managed to fall asleep yet again- apparently he could feel no pain in the presence of his new-found love.

She sighed with relief as she watched as Dame Simbai extracted what she needed- with apparently no harm done.

"With this I can start work- but it'll be a while until I can even start to search for an antidote- I recommend you kids go and get some rest," Simbai said.

Micro-ice, Tia and Mei took Ahito back to his quarters, ditching him whilst he was still asleep.

"What should we do now?" Mei asked.

Micro-ice yawned, prompting Tia to say: "I think we should all go to bed for now- there's nothing we can do right this minute. I guess we should meet in the morning and decide on our next move then."

All in agreement, they trudged off to their own rooms to get what little sleep they could in preparation for dealing with their enchanted friends for yet another day.

**That's it for this chapter; I hope you guys enjoyed it! The next chapter will be soon and I think that it will be more exciting that this, fairly dull one. Please review, I love you all who have reviewed so far!**


	9. Chapter 8: Sweet Delusions

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 8: Sweet Delusions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

**There is some slash in this chapter. **

"I love you, I think I've always loved you," she said, staring at him in a fashion that was somehow both blank and intent. "That's why I never could commit to Micro-ice."

He was looking back at her in a manner that was almost identical; love had made mirror images of them.

"I know, Yuki, but I love you more. If Micro-ice comes back for you, I swear, I'll kill him," Mark replied, smiling faintly at the thought of conquering his foe- he'd never realised quite how much he had hated him until recently- he'd hidden all his anger under the guise of friendly teasing- he'd even managed to fool himself.

Yuki smiled back at him. "My hero," she said, cuddling up to him.

"You always know what to say," he replied, holding her tighter.

"I had a thought," she said, cocking her head to one side. "I think that we should get matching tattoos."

"That is a stroke of genius! What better way to show everyone that you're mine and mine alone."

"Well, get ready, because I think I've come up with an even better idea of what we could do afterwards- let's get married!" she squealed.

"Are you sure you're ready for that? I don't want to rush you," Mark asked.

"I don't want to ever be without you- this way we can be together forever."

"It's perfect; let's do it!"

It was a promise that was sealed with a kiss.

Meanwhile…

"I know that you have been following me!" D'jok shouted. "You aren't as stealthy as you might like to believe."

Rocket moved reluctantly out of the shadows, knowing that the game was finally up once and for all.

"You caught me," he said, his voice sounding faint and gravelly. "What are you going to do now?"

"Go back to your girlfriend!" D'jok shouted, lashing out for no particular reason that he could think of. "Oh wait, I forgot, running away when she needs you is your raison d'être!"

"I'm not running away, I'm just making sure that you're okay," Rocket said, shrugging sadly, knowing that much of what D'jok was saying was true.

D'jok calmed down, though only slightly. "I don't need you're help; it's not as if we ever were good friends."

Rocket didn't say anything in response to that either- it was true after all- it was hurtful in that way that only something true could be.

"So why are you so concerned about me anyway, Rocket?" D'jok said, Rocket's silence making him infuriated all over again. "Why aren't you back at Aarch Academy trying to take the Captainship back?"

He had stepped forward, shaking Rocket by the shoulders as he said it, looking for a rise- wanting to hit him for the crime of simply being in his way. Was this really the guy who had been such a challenge for him? Because he looked like a crumpled shell of his former self and that in itself was an insult to D'jok's pride- it was his destiny to be great and how could he be that when his adversaries wouldn't even step up to the plate. He focused all his anger on the still target in front of him- it was better than thinking about _her_ after all.

"What are you going to do?" D'jok yelled, giving him another shake. "Come on, Rocket, let's see a little bit of that Netherball spirit…"

To his utter surprise, Rocket neither hit him nor walked away- instead he forcefully pulled D'jok even closer towards him, looking like he was about to headbutt D'jok, and instead gave him a passionate kiss.

D'jok pushed him away with equal force, wiping his mouth, his lip curled with disgust.

"What are you doing?" he said, sounding both confused and irritated. "Is this your idea of a joke?"

"No, I just-" Rocket began, his voice strained.

"Don't say anything," D'jok said, cutting him off. "I would say that I can't believe that you'd do this to Tia- but I can entirely believe it."

"I didn't mean to…"

"You never do! I suppose you've been planning this from the start- were you just trying to hide your little obsession with me when you argued with me all those times? I should have known."

"It's just the love potion," Rocket said, his voice reduced to a whisper, trying to convince himself as much as D'jok of this fact.

"For Flux sake! There. Is. No. Love. Potion. How many times do I have to tell you people that?" he yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. "Everything you have done is your own fault and no-one else's."

Rocket hung his head- D'jok was voicing everything he feared was true. And given that it was D'jok who was saying, he had to believe that it was the truth- that he was truly was just as bad as he had been during his time as King of the Sphere.

"I'm going back to Aarch Academy! I'm going to do what I should have done all along- fight for the girl I love! I don't want to spend another minute with you!" D'jok said, taking off into a fast paced run.

Rocket considered what he should do next- he wanted to turn and run in the opposite direction but it was like D'jok had some kind of magnetic pull on him. Against all his better judgement, he set off and started to run after him.

Sometime later…

"I called up and asked- they say that we can have the temple as soon as this afternoon!" Yuki said, practically squealing.

"It's like it was meant to be," sighed Mark, dreamily.

"That's because it was," Yuki replied.

"That reminds me," Mark said, getting down on his knee. "I know we've already agreed but I thought I'd ask you formally: Yuki, light and love of my life- in the time we've been together, I feel like you've made me a better man. Will you do the honour of marrying me?"

He hastily fumbled into his pockets, bringing out a tacky ring he'd gotten out of a cereal box (it was the only one handy).

"I would love to be your wife; I do!" Yuki said, swooning.

Whilst Mark was in the midst of putting the cereal box engagement ring onto Yuki's finger the door burst open, revealing a heavily out of breath D'jok- looking sweaty and generally worse for the wear.

"Don't even think about it, Mark!" he growled.

"What's it to you?" Mark said, putting a protective arm around Yuki.

"Mark's not good enough for you!" D'jok shouted. "You need a real star- like me!"

Rocket, who had just caught up to D'jok, gaped- not believing what he was hearing.

He hadn't thought that any more heart break was even possible but it looked he had been wrong.

Again.

**That's it for this chapter- I wanted to do something different for this one, focusing just on how the love potion affects the team members who are under it's thrall and not have it filtered through the reactions of those not under the influence- if that makes sense. It'll be back to the quest to cure them next chapter (you can assume that during the events of this chapter, Dame Simbai was hard at work in her lab). This was actually the easiest chapter for me to write so far, so yay! Review please; reviews are awesome!**


	10. Chapter 9: Breaking Point

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 9: Breaking Point

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

**In terms of timeline, the earlier events of this chapter happen at the same time as all that stuff that was going on in the last chapter- when it all converges it should hopefully be pretty clear. **

It was quite late when Mei, Micro-ice and Tia met the next day, they'd managed to sleep in- clearly the events of the past few days had taken a greater toll on them than they had initially realised.

But even when they did all meet, in Tia and Mei's room, they were slightly at a loss as to what they should do- Tia had already tried calling Rocket about 15 times, but he never picked up his holo-phone.

"I feel like we should be doing something," Mei said, tapping her fingers irritably on her leg.

"What can we do?" Tia said, shrugging sadly. "Dame Simbai is working on it- badgering her isn't going to help anything- she'll tell us when she knows anything."

"I think we should go 'check' on Yuki and Mark," Micro-ice suggested, his face a picture of innocence.

"He has a point," said Mei.

"I do?" Micro-ice asked, flummoxed- he had expected to be shut down again.

"Well, not about them specifically, I mean everyone. Who knows what trouble they could be getting themselves into on their own."

Tia nodded. "That's true- has anyone seen Thran recently? He seems to have disappeared."

The other two shook their heads.

"Then it's settled," Mei said. "Let's try to find him first."

Finding him turned out to be a lot more troublesome that it had originally sounded- they begun with the assumption that he was in Aarch Academy but they'd searched almost everywhere and he was no-where to be found. He certainly wasn't in his and Ahito's room- but with the way it looked currently who could blame him? It didn't help that they still had no idea who the love potion had made him fall for; that at least would have given them some clue as to where to start.

Just as they were about to give up, they stumbled across him in a room that usually went unused, surrounded by various strange looking contraptions, small components- the stench of oil was overwhelming, causing them to cough.

Although that should have alerted him to their presence, he didn't seem to notice, he didn't look up from the device he was working from.

"Ugh, how can you stand it in here?" Micro-ice said, waving his hand around despite there being little chance of him wafting the smell away.

"I have to work," Thran said, flatly, still not looking at them.

"How long have you been in here?" Mei asked, a look of horror on her face.

"A while," he said, flatly.

"When was the last time you slept?" Tia asked, noting how sunken and bloodshot his eyes looked.

"More to the point, when was the last time you showered?" Micro-ice said, jokily.

"I don't have time," Thran replied, simply.

"Why not? What are you working on that's this important?" Mei asked, not being able to imagine how someone could stand being as dirty and dishevelled as he looked right now- quite frankly, he looked practically dead; he could have fit into the cast of a zombie film without anyone knowing the difference.

"I need to prove myself; I need to prove I'm worthy."

"Prove yourself to who?" Micro-ice asked. "Listen, Thran, I'm not sure your valentine will be quite as impressed by this sort of stuff as you are."

Thran had nothing to say to that- he just carried on with his work.

The three of them looked at each other, slightly at a loss for what to say.

"Come on, Thran," Tia said, finally. "Let's go get something to eat."

It took all three of them to drag him away from his work but once they had made it far away from the room he pretty much stopped resisting. They went to the cafeteria and he managed to eat the whole meal- but that was all they could get from him. He ate in silence, wolfing down his food, and they were unable to persuade him to shower or go take a nap before he rushed back to his mechanical projects.

Upon discussing it, they decided that they'd go check on him again in a while- at least they knew he probably wasn't going anywhere- which was more than they could probably say for some of the others.

They found Ahito back in his room; that had detained them for a while; he kept insisting upon giving various tokens of his affections to Mei and protested every time they tried to leave.

In the end, they only managed to slip away because he fell asleep again.

Apart from him, the others seemed to be no-where to be found: the cafeteria, the hallways, the common room- all were empty. It wasn't an encouraging sign.

"Let's go check Yuki's room again," Micro-ice suggested.

Mei rolled her eyes.

"Alright," Tia said, sighing. "I guess it couldn't hurt."

They entered the room expecting to find no-one; instead they found chaos. Yuki was the midst of slapping D'jok hard across the face. Mark had got up on the bed, a paper weight in his hand, looking like he was about to jump down and hit D'jok over the head with it. Meanwhile, Rocket was grabbing onto Mark's ankle in some pull him down.

"What is going on here?" Mei asked, shaking her head, although the comment was lost the midst of all the sound.

"At least we know where they are?" Micro-ice said, half-heartedly

"Everybody stop what you are doing and look at me!" Tia shouted, sounding much like a school teacher- the shock of it being enough that they actually did do as they were told. "Now separate out and let go of each other."

Slowly, and looking distrustfully at each other, they did- Yuki and Mark slinking into a corner together, whilst Rocket tried to sit as close to D'jok as possible- all the while D'jok was trying to get as far away from him as possible. Eventually though, they settled.

"Good," Tia said, somewhat surprised and yet relieved that they had actually listened to her.

"So anyone want to tell us what's going on here?" Mei asked, hands on hips.

This prompted them to all start talking- or more to the point- shouting at once.

"That's enough!" Mei yelled. "If you want to talk, then raise your hand and I will pick you."

Three hands (Rocket was not feeling particularly communicative seeing as Tia was in the room) shot in the air but before Mei had a chance to ask anyone to speak, Tia's holo-phone started ringing.

"Good news," Dame Simbai's voice on the other end said. "I think we may have found a cure."

**That's it for this chapter; I can't believe I actually got this one out so fast but I'm on a bit of a writing kick at the moment. Also, does anyone want to guess who Thran has fallen for? Next chapter should be soon; please review!**


	11. Chapter 10: Cure

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 10: Cure

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

"What do we do?" Mei asked. "We should go check out the cure but we can't just leave them all here- they'll eat each other alive!"

"Micro-ice can stay here and look after them and Rocket, I know I can count on you to help keep the peace," Tia said, giving him a verypointed look.

"Didn't Dame Simbai say that you needed to bring one of the affected with you?" Micro-ice asked. "Who will that be?"

Mark and Yuki didn't look like they were going anywhere without each other, whereas D'jok just looked so suspicious and hostile that getting him there would be too much trouble.

Mei and Tia looked at the group and then looked at each other.

"Ahito," they said, simultaneously.

Finding him again, they walked up to Dame Simbai's lab- slightly anxiously- if this didn't work, what then? Ahito was entirely oblivious to this of course; he was just so ecstatic to be around Mei.

"Oh, you're here, good," Dame Simbai said, gesturing them in.

When they entered the lab they realised that she was not entirely alone- Artegor Nexus was standing next to her, looking not entirely happy.

"What's Artegor doing here?" Ahito asked, sleepily.

"It was thanks the information that Artegor gave me that I've managed to figure out what the cure might be," Dame Simbai explained. "From the information you kids passed on to me it seemed like the love potion didn't have such a long lasting on the Shadows. I had ruled out it being something innate to Shadows Physiology- from what you had told me, and what Artegor had later confirmed, Aarch had shown a similar response to all the rest of the Shadows. Then I thought it might have been the Smog."

"We're not going to have to give them Smog are we?" Tia asked, nervously. "That could cause more problems than it solved."

Artegor shook his head. "It's not the Smog."

"So then I looked to diet and it turns out the answer is pretty simple," Dame Simbai said, elaborating. "The cure is Hyrakan- a Shadows staple food- as common as bread."

"Aarch and I ate the same food as the rest of the team so it had the same effect," Artegor said, trying not to go into a typical 'old person' rant about how kids these days had it lucky (and by kids, he meant Sinedd- getting his own special human diet and not being forced to endure Shadows' food).

"Enough of the theory, let's test it," Dame Simbai said, placing a piece of Hyrakan in front of Ahito.

"Errr- do I really have to eat that?" Ahito said, cringing. "It looks almost as bad as Wambas food."

"Believe me, it is worse," Artegor muttered- the only time it tasted half-way edible was when you were in Smog-induced haze.

"What even is that?" Ahito said, poking it.

"It's better you don't know- just eat it," Dame Simbai said.

Against all his better judgement and at Mei's encouragement- Ahito put the thing in his mouth and tried to swallow it without having to taste much of it- coughing and spluttering as he managed to get much of the flavour of it anyways.

"I don't feel any different," he said, shrugging, moments before falling down- the others had to rush to catch him before he hit the floor.

"Mei…" he said, before he blacked out completely.

"Is this normal?" Mei asked.

Dame Simbai didn't really get a chance to answer or do much of anything before Ahito started to wake up.

"Hey guys," he said, sleepily. "What am I doing here?"

"You don't remember?" Tia asked.

"No- last thing I remember, we were at the party- was there an accident?" he asked, looking around.

"You never said memory loss was a side effect," Dame Simbai said to Artegor.

Artegor just shrugged.

"Memory loss?" Ahito said, looking frantic.

"It's nothing to worry about," Dame Simbai said, soothingly. "Just rest now."

Ahito didn't have to be told twice to sleep.

"Well, it looks like it works," Mei said, trying to smile. "He didn't even remember he ever had a crush on me."

"Can we take some of the Hyrakan so that we don't have to try and drag everyone back up to the lab," Tia asked, sounding more energised than she had for a while.

"Sure, I've checked everyone's files and it doesn't look like anyone is allergic," Dame Simbai said, handing her a bag full.

They went to see Thran again first, giving him the food under the guise of helping him to keep up his strength so he could continue his work. He didn't even look at it before he ate it.

When he woke up they fed him some line about there being a slight Flux tremor or some such nonsense- he was anxious for details, being annoyingly scientific about it- but in the end he bought the explanation.

In fact, he seemed to adapt back to life love potion free fairly easily- he was slightly confused about all the machines he was surrounded with but after a moments thought, he continued working- seeming none the worse for the fact that he didn't even remember making any of these things to begin with.

They just hoped that all the others would take to the cure that easily.

By the time they got back to the room, chaos and violence had emerged yet again.

"You think you have any chance with Yuki, you midget!" D'jok shouted, his hands around Micro-ice's throat. "You'll always be in my shadow!"

Meanwhile, Rocket was preoccupied with trying to stop D'jok from doing anything he might regret but at the same time holding back much of his strength- he was too afraid of hurting D'jok.

"Micro-ice! You were supposed to keep things calm," Mei said, putting her hands of her hips.

"I'm a bit busy here," Micro-ice said, plaintively.

"Have either of you guys noticed that Yuki isn't even here?" Tia said.

They both looked up, D'jok letting go of his grip on Micro-ice; it was true and Mark was no-where to be seen either.

"Now that I've got your attention," Tia said. "I've got your cures."

Rocket practically snatched the thing out of Tia's hand, eating it as if it were the most delicious delicacy in the world and not the culinary horror that it was. D'jok was not nearly so easy.

"I told you," D'jok said, stubbornly. "I don't believe in any love potion. This is just some trick."

"Why would I want to trick you?" Mei said, her voice soft. "I'm your girlfriend."

He looked away, annoyed that he'd somehow forgotten that fact in amidst his obsession for Yuki.

"Please, can't you just do this one thing?" Mei asked, sadly. "Then you can go chase Yuki all you want."

Grimly, he took the Hyrakan and ate it.

"Whilst this is great and all," Micro-ice said, as they were starting to come around. "We do need to get to Mark and Yuki."

"I'll stay here and give them the spiel," Tia volunteered. "I want to make sure Rocket's okay."

"Do you want to stay too?" Micro-ice asked, turning to Mei.

She shook her head. "Let's go."

Tia passed them the bag and wished them luck as they set off. Mei and Micro-ice searched all over Aarch Academy but they didn't seem to be anywhere.

"Wait a minute!" Micro-ice said, having a thought that made his blood run cold.

"What is it?" Mei asked.

"Mark and Yuki were talking about getting married…what if they…"

"Oh my god," Mei said. "We have got to stop them before they do something foolish!"

They set of out of Aarch Academy, racing desperately to get to the temple on time (they knew it would probably be the temple best known the for the quickie marriages, everywhere else was normally booked up weeks in advance).

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to today to witness the marriage of Mark and Yuki; if anyone objects to this marriage let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

Micro-ice pushed open the double doors of the temple in a most dramatic fashion, the wind carrying the snow into the room in a swirl.

"I object!" he shouted loudly. "I've always wanted to say that."

He ran down the aisle, Mei following behind him.

"Micro-ice!" Mark shouted, looking as if he were going to perpetrate yet more violence.

Yuki stepped in, not wanting anything to spoil her perfect day- cereal box ring and bed-sheet wedding dress not withstanding.

"Surely you want me to be happy," she said, softly. "I'm happy with him."

"I just didn't want you to get married without giving you my present- it's a traditional dish eaten before the marriage to make sure it lasts," Micro-ice said, handing them both pieces of the Hyrakan.

"Thanks, Micro-ice," Yuki said, smiling.

"That's very decent of you," Mark admitted, somewhat begrudgingly.

The two of them looked into each others eyes and ate at the same time, falling to the ground in sync.

"So is there going to be a wedding or not?" the priest asked, confusedly.

**That's it for this chapter; it's not the last one though, there should be one or two more just to wrap everything up. Also, everyone who chose Clamp in the guess who Thran's in love with sweepstakes is a winner! Unfortunately there is no prize. Anyways, please keep the reviews coming- I love them all!**


	12. Chapter 11: Back to Normal

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 11: Back to Normal

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

**We've got some more medical chat in this chapter- just so that you're warned. **

It took a while but things eventually started to get back to normal, although not before a lot of explaining on the part of Tia, Mei and Micro-ice. They'd been so focused on just curing their teammates of the love potion that they hadn't even considered all the unexplained things that they would encounter once they got back to normal. They stuck to their story of there being a Flux Tremor which caused short term memory loss- as well as knocking them out- but that only explained the main query. The problem was there were all sorts of little details to be accounted for.

"What the hell happened to my bedroom?" Ahito had said, looking more dazed and confused than ever.

"It was a practical joke- blame Micro-ice," said Mei, trying not to laugh.

"No, don't blame me," Micro-ice had responded, putting his hands up in outrage that he was getting the wrap for this.

"Well, it is your fault," Mei had retorted, pointedly- after all, it was in an indirect sort of way.

Micro-ice had sighed. "Fine."

Even worse that this was the on the spot explanation they had had to come up with for why Yuki and Mark were at temple in strange clothes. In the end they'd ended up telling them that they'd been in a temple fashion show when the 'flux tremor' had occurred. It seemed like they bought it- although it probably wasn't because Micro-ice was such a good liar and rather that they just didn't want to think about what might have actually been happening.

Tia had a slightly easier time of it in terms of making up stories- there wasn't too much explanation needed for why she, D'jok and Rocket were just hanging out in Yuki's room- although it did beg the question where Yuki herself was.

Hours passed and everyone seemed to be their usual selves- sensible, non-obsessive, football players. Nevertheless, Dame Simbai called them all in just to check that none of them were having a poor reaction to the Hyrakan- and more importantly to check that the symptoms of the love potion were fully gone- all under the guise of checking the Flux Tremor didn't do any harm.

"Okay, Rocket, you're tests have come back healthy- you're free to go," Dame Simbai said.

"Let's go," Tia said, reaching for his hand.

"Wait Tia, aren't you going to get tested? You said you were affected by the Flux Tremor too, right?" Rocket asked, concernedly.

Tia squirmed- instantly regretting the fact that in the story they'd invented all members of the Snow Kids were affected- what was she supposed to say now?

"Yes Tia, don't think you can get out of a medical exam," Dame Simbai said, thinking quickly. "If you'll just sit down on the chair for me."

"It can't hurt to have a routine medical check-up," Dame Simbai murmured to Tia (so that Rocket couldn't hear).

"Muscle strength: normal; heart rate: normal…hmmm, this is odd?" she said, closely examining her results.

"What?" Tia asked, her eyes slightly wide with panic.

"Rocket, could you please leave the room so that I can talk to Tia in private," Dame Simbai said.

"I think I should be here with Tia," Rocket replied.

"No, it's fine, I'll be alright on my own," Tia said, despite being unduly worried about what Dame Simbai had spotted.

Rocket shrugged and exited the room. "I'm right outside," he said.

"What is it?" Tia said, warily.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about- it's just a little strange," Dame Simbai said, seemingly checking and re-checking. "But it looks like you have traces of the Love Potion in your blood."

Tia just stared- how could this be possible?

"Have you experienced any symptoms?" Dame Simbai asked.

Tia shook her head. "Nothing at all."

"I'm still going to give you a piece of the Hyrakan to make sure," Dame Simbai said, handing one to Tia who gobbled it down despite being fully aware of how gross it tasted.

"It'll be a while before I can come up with an explanation but I think you should be safe from the effects now," Dame Simbai said. "I guess it's a good thing that Rocket mentioned you having the tests done."

"What about Mei and Micro-ice?" Tia asked.

"I think it would be better if they came in too," Dame Simbai said, grimacing. "I'll send for them now."

"What's this about?" Mei said, after they arrived.

"Don't panic, but I need to perform a few tests on you two," said Dame Simbai.

"Love potion showed up in my results," Tia said, wearily.

"What?" exclaimed Micro-ice.

"That was my reaction," said Tia, shrugging. "I've taken the Hyrakan though- we just don't understand why the love potion didn't have any effect in the first place."

Dame Simbai performed her tests as quickly as possible.

"It's as I suspected," she said. "Love potion shows up in the samples- both of you should take the cure to make sure that it doesn't manifest at a later date."

"I feel fine," Micro-ice said, pulling a face. "Do I really have to take it?"

"Do you want to fall in love with Maya or Norata or whoever just happens to cross your path?" asked Mei, who was admittedly not too enthused about taking it herself.

"On second thoughts, it looks delicious!" Micro-ice said, snatching it out of Dame Simbai's hand and eating it- grimacing and gagging as he did.

"Oh Micro-ice," Tia said, rolling her eyes at his theatrics.

Mei just took the Hyrakan and ate it, trying to make as little fuss as possible- although a part of her really wanted to complain.

They walked out of the sickbay together.

"I just don't understand why it didn't have any effect," Mei said.

"Before, I just assumed that nothing happened to us because we didn't ingest any of the potion but now…who knows?" Tia said, shrugging.

"I think I might be able to explain that," said Artegor.

**That's it for this chapter; the next chapter will almost definitely be the last. So yeah, please review!**


	13. Chapter 12: The Aftertaste

The Trouble with Love Potions

Chapter 12: And the Aftertaste is More Bitter than Sweet

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

"You know something?" Tia asked, honestly puzzled.

"Why didn't you say something before?" Mei's tone had an edge of anger.

"I wasn't going to tell you if it wasn't necessary," Artegor said, looking away- truth was, talking about it cut far too close to those old inner wounds- and he had no intention of revealing personal things about himself to a bunch of kids. But it seemed that they were going to find out at some point anyway- it was better to get it over with now than to let them live for so long not knowing the facts of the matter.

"Well, you're ready to tell us now, right?" Micro-ice said, smiling goofily.

"If you're sure that it's important to you…"

"It is," Mei said, curtly- she wished that Artegor would stop being so goddamn melodramatic and just say his piece, so that they could just move on with the rest of their lives in peace.

"The love potion has no effect on…those who are already in the true form of the state that the potion implements…"

"Meaning?" Micro-ice said.

"The potion has no effect on those who are already in love," Artegor said, simply.

There was a stunned silence as each of them tried to process what Artegor was telling them.

"I guess this means I'm just going to have to work harder to win Yuki over," Micro-ice finally said, breaking the silence, a note of cheeriness in his voice that may or may not have been genuine.

Silence fell again; Tia looked down at her shoes, all her effort focused on not bursting into tears in front of them all- she and Rocket had been through so much, survived all the tests that had been thrown at them, but now it all meant nothing because he didn't love her.

Mei's face was hard, her lips pursed together angrily- but she wasn't moving, none of them were moving- as if standing still would prevent what Artegor said from manifesting itself in their lives- as if it they could contain it, as if it hadn't been there all along.

"Well, I should be going," Artegor said, leaving them to their emotional turmoil- he'd never been able to solve his own, so what good was anything he had to say to them?

"I'm going too- I got a scheme up my sleeve- it's gonna win Yuki's heart for sure. At least I know she's not in love with anyone else!" Micro-ice said, dashing off.

"Are you okay?" Mei asked, quietly.

Tia shook her head, slightly. "Are you?"

Mei sighed. "I'm going for a walk, I'll see you later Tia."

"See you," Tia said, listlessly.

Meanwhile…

"Artegor! What are you doing here?" Aarch asked, suspiciously; it wouldn't be the first time that Artegor had pulled a stalker act.

"Just offering my assistance with your whole Love Potion problem," Artegor said, tiredly.

"Love Potion? What are you talking about? I haven't seen one of those since back in our Shadows' days."

"Yes well," Artegor said, hoping to prevent Aarch from going into one of his legendary flashbacks. "We're not talking about that, we're talking about the one that your entire team was under."

"What?" Aarch gasped.

Artegor paused, wondering whether he hadn't made a mistake. "You didn't know?"

"No- I mean, things seemed kind of odd around here- was there really a Love Potion?"

Artegor nodded. "I'm afraid so, we only just found the cure too- would you believe it's that accursed Hyrakan they used to serve us every other day?"

Aarch pulled a face, remembering distinctly the taste. "Well, I guess had to be good for something…"

"Yes, well. I'll be off now; I need to spend some time with my own team," Artegor said. "See you around, Aarch."

"Bye," Aarch said, sighing. He just didn't know how all of this could have happened without him noticing, even Artegor had known what was going on, wasn't he supposed to be the coach of this team? He guessed he wasn't as on the ball as he had thought…

Meanwhile…

"Tia, I'm fine, honestly," Rocket said, inching away a little. "Dame Simbai said everything was going to be okay, so you don't have to worry."

"I know," Tia sighed. "I'm just keeping you company."

Rocket paused, racking his brain for a way to say things diplomatically.

"You know I love spending time with you," he said. "But you've been following me everywhere- I need some space."

Tia looked down. "Of course you do, I know that…"

"Is something the matter?" he asked.

"No, nothing at all" she said, sadly. "I guess I'll see you later then."

"See you," Rocket replied, still puzzled by her demeanour.

Meanwhile…

"I just don't get why you're mad at me!" D'jok exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "Given that I was knocked out with that Flux-flu or whatever it was, I don't see how I even could have done anything!"

"And that's all part of the problem," Mei shouted. "You don't care what the issue is, you just want to prove that as usual that you are in the right."

"Well, you're making it very easy for me- coming in here and just accusing me out of no-where, you ought to consider your own actions."

"There you go again," Mei said, shrilly, tears coming to her eyes. "The only person you care about is yourself and I'm sick of always coming second."

"I've had it with this, I can't talk to you until you've come to your senses," D'jok said, bitterly, stomping off.

Mei ran back to her room, tears starting to flow freely from her eyes, knowing in her heart that Artegor's words were true. She flopped down on the bed, hugging the pillow tight to her chest, sobbing into it- then a buzzing sound.

She looked up- it was coming from the Holo-Computer- she was tempted to just leave it, but there was still a part of her hoping that it would be D'jok- calling to apologise, proving that he did love her after all.

She pulled herself up and staggered to the desk, knowing that she must look an absolute wreck. Wiping away the tears, she pressed accept.

"Mei, are you there?"

Her mouth actually dropped open a little.

"Sinedd! I'm warning you, I'm in no mood for any of your rubbish," she said, moving to hang up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking," she said, automatically replying in a sarcastic tone.

"No, you aren't," Sinedd said, seeming strangely and sincerely concerned.

"What's going on?" she asked, suspiciously.

"I just wanted you to know that I really do care for you, Mei, maybe I haven't shown it before…but I do."

She paused and ran through all the reasons he might be doing this in her mind.

"I know," she said. "I think perhaps we should meet."

**That's it for this chapter and this fic- it might seem like it ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger but you guys already know what happens next given that this fic is set between Season 2 and 3. Also, I didn't mean to leave such a large gap between this chapter and the last, I've just been busy. So yeah, I'm sad that this fic is finished but thanks for all the reviews! Please review this chapter and let me know what you think overall. **


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